


Count Down

by musix



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Implied/Referenced Suicide, One Shot, Other, Soulmate-Identifying Timers, Suicidal Thoughts, Zombie Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-03
Updated: 2014-09-03
Packaged: 2018-02-15 21:30:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2244132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/musix/pseuds/musix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When you've got a timer on your wrist that's slowly counting down to the moment you meet your soul mate, not much really matters in the world. But when it's the zombie apocalypse you tend forget about those things when survival is more important to you.</p><p>What Petra doesn't realize is that her's has been getting pretty close to zero.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Count Down

The world sucks. It sucked before the dead started walking around and eating people too. Controlling old men sitting in their big white buildings pretending they could create order out of chaos. Even a 12 year old could tell that it was a lost cause. The natural order was disorder, and in a way, the world was back to the natural order again.

Petra didn't see many survivors these days. When this hell first started she would stumble upon a new survivor every other week. Usually while scavenging a store or creeping through the alleys to avoid the roads and the hordes of the dead that stumbled through. They for the most part were agreeable. Wanting nothing more than to survive until tomorrow morning just like her. Maybe they'd travel together for a couple days. Hole up in an old building to stay safe. Share stories and occasionally comfort each other if needed. But more often than not they would split up. Some searching for friends or family while others had a death wish. Petra hadn't been bothered by their departure. Traveling with a group could be dangerous, especially with the dead being more attracted to larger groups of humans.

That was one thing she'd learned. She could be as noisy as she wanted to be if the zombies were fixated on a group of survivor taking shelter just out of their reach. They preferred going after a bigger group of humans rather than stragglers that evaded their detection. It was how Petra had survives for so long. Occasionally a zombie would try and get a bite out of her but a quick kick to their knee and a blow to the head dropped them quickly and quietly.

Sometimes the dead weren't the only thing to be wary of.

It wasn't an hour past noon when Petra found what looked like a mob of zombies all huddled around a small car. The cities often held these kind of situations on a weekly basis. Although as the dead to living ratio continued to change the occurrence became more and more rare. Hiding behind the wall of an old apartment building, she flinched when she could hear the faintest of screams from inside the vehicle. Most likely the people inside had tried to drive through the mass and the car gave out. Not the smartest idea but Petra envied their courage to even attempt it. Was it courage or stupidity? Those two words are often closely related.

Petra watched for a couple more seconds as the dead continued to terrorize the victims inside. She couldn't save them even if she wanted to. There were too many bodies between her and the car. The meager supply of ammo that was stored in the backpack she wore was too few to safely kill them all from a distance as well. The best bet was to just climb onto the top of a nearby building and stay there for the night while the horde cleared out. She honestly didn't want to hear the soon to be dead survivor's screams though. Sighing heavily she turned around and headed down the alley in the opposite direction. As she turned down another alley she heard glass break and the screams get louder.

Shaking her head she kept walking, checking her surroundings constantly for danger. Hopefully those survivors attracted a large amount of attention to make her own getaway less stressful. She hated thinking like this but it was survival of the fittest now and she couldn't afford to be weak. She didn't want to die yet.

The thought had crossed her mind quite a few times. Ending her own life would be quick and painless. Much more preferable than getting ripped apart by hungry jaws. She'd had plenty opportunities in the past. Jumping from a high building, cutting through her neck, or even eating a bullet for breakfast. She'd never gone through with it though. Either too scared or too hopeful. She wasn't sure which one so she just pretended she'd never tried. Pretended she'd never given up.

A low moan made Petra jump and pull the pistol from her belt, aiming it at the sound. It was just a zombie trapped under a fallen pole. Even though their face was decaying and their eyes had long since clouded over, Petra could still make out some physical appearance of what they used to look like. They had dark hair, eyes that suggested an ancestry from a country across the world, and a red scarf that matched the blood surrounding them. The pole was pinning down their legs and left arm, making their only movable limb seem less threatening. Petra knelt down and examined the body for ammo or food. They couldn't see anything from a distance but there was a knife not far from their left hand. Petra grabbed it, adding it to the other weapons she'd collected and stood back up.

She was about to leave when she noticed something on the zombie's arm. A quick look confirmed it as the timer they were all born with. She'd forgotten about those. Back when the world wasn't so messed up they would all watch their timers slowly tick down as they grew closer and closer to their soul mates. It all seemed so trivial now. Finding that special someone seemed unimportant. Getting clean water, food, and a safe place to rest was far above finding a person on her list.

Curiously, she checked the time on the zombie and was surprised to see she only had two minutes before she was going to meet her soul mate. Suddenly a feeling of pity and sadness overtook her. Whoever this person was destined to be with was nearby, but she doubted that person were ready to see what had become of them.

The timer was at 30 seconds now. Petra started moving away from the body when another moan caused her to gasp and turn around. A blonde zombie with a unique looking nose was shuffling down the alleyway towards her and the body. Petra was about to take off towards the nearest building to rest for the night when she saw the timer on this zombie's arm had reached zero. Glancing at the one trapped under the pole, Petra confirmed her suspicion. The two lovers were finally united.

Without another look back, Petra ran from the scene, finding a safe place to rest for the night as the sun grew closer to the horizon. She found a good area in an abandoned auto shop down the street from the zombie trapped under a pole. She had to pry open the shutter closing off the safe haven from the world outside and resealed it when it was confirmed to be free of the dead.

Dropping her bag into the ground Petra slumped down next to it, leaning against one of the walls. Seeing the two dead lovers had made Petra feel more than she would have liked. The lone survivor sighed heavily as she gazed at her own forearm that held the timer she had. She hadn't looked at it since she was separated from her friends after an unfortunate situation that left most of them wounded and lost. She knew at least some of them had to be alive, she refused believe that all of her friends were gone. Bringing her hands to her head she covered her face and closed her eyes attempting to try and relieve her stress with a few seconds of peace and quiet.

After a few moments of silence Petra opened her bag and started searching through for food. Soon she was sitting in the dark, huddled next to her backpack and quietly nibbling on a candy bar she's salvaged from a gas station not long ago. After finishing her dinner she settled down on the ground, using her pack as a pillow to cushion her head. She didn't fall asleep for almost an hour until exhaustion took over.

A chorus of moaning was what brought Petra to her feet in a split second. Heart beating she spun around to find the danger her senses knew was there. When her brain finally woke up she realized the noise was coming from outside the shop, past the garage she'd closed the night before. The horde group of zombies from before most likely had spread to her street and began roaming around without a goal.

Petra lowered her guard when she remembered she was safe, for now. The light from a ceiling window lit the small auto shop and made it easy to look around. A quick scan revealed several tools that would be perfect for smashing a head and others more likely to help her out of a sticky situation. Picking her best options, Petra grabbed a large screwdriver, a crowbar, and an assortment of little things like wire and duct tape. Satisfied that she got enough supplies to help her survive but not weight her down too much, she looked for a way out. The garage door wasn't a good idea. She could hear the dead right outside occasionally banging on the door. The back door was locked and boarded down, making it impossible to open. Faint shuffling on the other side when she leaned in to listen alerted her of more dead further that way. She was trapped. Not willing to give up so early in the day Petra continued to look around. Her eyes stopped when they reached the sky light. It was her only option. Thankfully it was big enough to fit her and her backpack through but she wasn't sure how to reach it or how to open it. She wasn't the tallest of people so jumping wasn't an option.

Another bang at the garage door made her jump and for a second a few other dead joined in as well. They died down after a while, sending a wave of relief through her. Still looking for something to let her reach the saw her salvation. A group of crates stacked in the corner that would let her reach the ceiling in no time.

When she reached them she was thankful to know that they weren't too heavy. Most of their contents probably already taken from them. As quietly as she could she moved a large crate underneath the sky light. She jumped onto it to investigate the window and how to open it. It was just a simple lock that she could undo in seconds, if she could reach it. She jumped off the crate and began stacking more and more. To her horror the noise of the giant wood boxes was alerting the dead outside and a symphony of moans and bangs made the garage door shutter and bend. Feeling panic well up on her throat Petra quickly climbed her makeshift stairs and reached the lock. Fumbling with it at first due to her shaky hands she finally unlocked it and pushed on the glass.

It didn't move.

"Oh fuck." The zombies attempting to get in were louder now, more than certain that their food was inside. Trying to think with a clear head she checked if there were other locks keeping the window shut. When none were seen and the large metal door made a noise that sounded like bending metal Petra settled on the more painful option of getting out. She pulled the crowbar from her bag and smashed into the window as hard as she could. The shattering glass rained down on her and she lowered her eyes to the ground to avoid getting seriously hurt. The zombies were getting more restless and the door wouldn't hold them forever. Petra continued to smash at the window to get a large enough opening for her to crawl through. The second she did and she was sure her hands could find a good grip the door bent in and revealed a large group of the dead waiting outside the shop.

As a few got inside Petra jumped for the ledge and desperately pulled herself up, hearing the sound of zombies fill the room. She got out as fast as she could and sat on the top of the roof listening to the noises the abominations made. Peering down she saw a few trying to climb the crates but they were knocked over when there was too much weight for them to stay up properly. Sighing in relief Petra adjusted her backpack and walked over to the ledge of the building.

The street was mostly empty, most of the dead now stumbling around in the auto shop she'd just been in. It was relatively safe to quietly jump down and move on but if she landed wrong she'd hurt herself no doubt. Getting hurt was probably the worst thing to happen, right under getting eaten alive. She didn't have a lot of bandages left in her pack and using up precious energy to limp away from zombies wasn't a situation she wanted to be in.

Checking all sides of the building concluded that jumping was the safest way to go. There had been a ladder but it was extremely unstable and would crumble away under her weight if she even tried using it. The noise would probably bring unwanted attention as well. The zombies were still preferring to wander around inside rather than the few that waddled down the streets. Taking a deep breath Petra prepared herself for the worst and started climbing down the building using the bricks and ledges to hold herself up. When she was low enough to the ground to land safely she jumped and rolled into the landing, saving her ankle from being twisted or worse.

She'd done it successfully and quietly and there was no indication that she'd attracted any attention. But better safe than sorry, so she moved on.

Solar powered watches are probably the best thing humanity created before everything went downhill. Petra was more than ecstatic when she found one to help her keep track of time. Her black watch would show the time, the date, and would light up if it was too dark to read. She was thankful for the lack of an alarm too. She didn't know if a quiet beeping was worth getting nervous about but better to be paranoid than dead.

Checking the time now it was 5:47 p.m. and the sun was starting to go down. Petra had wandered farther out of the city, in hopes of staying away from the heavily populated areas. The streets were clear so she allowed herself the normality of walking on the sidewalk.

The quiet disturbed her though. She was too used to the footsteps and groans of the undead and when all of that disappeared everything seemed deader than it already was. The area she was in was mostly filled with apartment buildings and small shops every now and then. A soft breeze passed through the streets, making the leaves on the trees lining the streets rustle softly. It wasn't long before the setting sun and uneasy feeling in her gut made her find a safe place to sleep.

She spotted an old house nearby that had seemed to have survived looting and the attacks from the dead.

Moving closer to it revealed a fence around the front yard and several corpses leaning heavily against it. They weren't moving and the smell or their burnt flesh alerted Petra to the fact that this was most likely an electronic fence. That means there's a survivor inside, or there was.

After deciding to try her luck here, Petra picked up a nearby twig and gently touched the fence. Nothing happened. Praying the fence was off she grabbed it with her hand and almost cried in relief when she wasn't killed. Quickly she opened the gate and ran to the house, jumping through an open window when the front door proved to be boarded down. She crawled through the opening and let her body roll into the room when her arms gave out.

The sound of a gun cocking made her eyes open wide and her heart stop.

_"Get out."_

Petra looked at her attacker, expecting them to be standing over her with the barrel of a gun in her face. But they were across the room, huddled under a wooden desk, holding a pistol in their shaking hand.

"I don't want any trouble. I just need a safe spot to rest. Walkers are already coming out of their hiding spots. Sending me back out there is a death sentence."

"Keeping you in here is a death sentence too." The stranger dropped the gun, out of physically weakness or mental, Petra couldn't tell. They stared her down for a few seconds before letting out a tired sigh.

"Go into the next room over and turn on the fence." The voice had lost its anger and sounded more defeated than anything.

Petra did as she was told and walked into the hall. Finding the room easily she walked inside and saw a large generator with a button on the side. Clicking it made it hum to life and the fence outside to become a death trap. When she returned to the stranger she found that they had stumbled over to the window Petra had climbed through.

"Keep this open. No zombie can get in this way but it'll be your escape route if you need it."

"Why do you keep talking like that?" The figure turned around and limped past Petra without a word. The shorter woman followed them down the hall and into what looked like a kitchen.

"There's water and food in here." Petra watched them limp over to a chair and sit down before turning her own head to a box filled with cans and bottled water. She grabbed a bottle and immediately started drinking. She was halfway finished when a hand grabbed her wrist, making her jump in fright.

"Slow down. You'll upset your stomach." The stranger pulled their hood down and tried their best to appear friendly.

"Eat slowly. Eating too fast will hurt you in more ways than one."

Petra looked down at the wrist holding her arm. "Why is your arm bandaged?" Her arm was released and the stranger backed away slowly.

"The same reason you shouldn't be here." The stranger was taller than her. Brown hair cut short awkwardly, suggesting the deed was done with scissors or a knife. Their face was thin and their brown eyes looked dead but determined in a way Petra couldn't understand.

"Why don't you take a picture? It'll last longer." The stranger grumbled sitting back down in the chair.

"I don't have a camera. You'll have to settle on me staring."

"Whatever. What's your name?"

"Petra Ral. And you?"

"Hanji Zoe at your service."

Petra smiled. "Well Hanji, thank you for letting me stay here for the night."

Hanji just nodded, suddenly looking sad. "Just be sure you leave as soon as possible. It's not safe to stay in one place for too long."

Petra grabbed a can from the box and after being provided with a knife by Hanji, began to delve into the food. It only took two scolding sessions from the taller survivor for Petra to slow down and eat with some dignity. After she'd finished her meal she looked at Hanji with curiosity.

"Why are you alone?"

Hanji turned their head towards her and shrugged. "Because I'm the only person crazy enough to still be alive. That's what I used to think. But thanks to recent events I'm not so sure if I'm the crazy one anymore."

Petra frowned. "I'm not crazy."

"Didn't say you were. You are nosy though."

"Coming from someone with a nose that big?"

"I'll have you know my nose defines my face very well. Back when the world wasn't as big as a pile of shit as it is now I attracted quite a few eyes." Hanji smiled weakly. "Never found the one though. Never really looked at that damn timer."

Petra nodded. "I used to sit up all night staring at mine. Now I hardly look at it."

"Looked at it recently?"

Petra shook her head. "I saw a zombie pinned under a pole yesterday. Her timer was still ticking down and her soul mate limp down the street at me. If the timer still functions after death then I don't want to know the next zombie I kill was meant to be with me."

Hanji lifted up their arm and sighed. "A good reason I suppose. I'm not going to make it much farther. Want to see how close I got to my lover?"

Petra's eyes widened. Usually you didn't share your timer openly with others. It was more of a personal thing. But she doubted she had much longer to survive like Hanji so sharing what they could wasn't a bad idea.

"I'll show you mine too. It's only fair."

"Alright." Hanji rolled up the sleeve of their right arm, their timer facing away from their view.

Petra did the same, her own timer facing away as well. "On three," Hanji nodded. "One, two...three."

At the same time the two twisted their arms to reveal the timer slowly ticking away. Both timers were extremely close to zero, a few seconds to be exact. Slowly they looked at each other just as the timers reached zero.

_"I'm so sorry."_


End file.
